adventures in family, faith, and Down syndrome

Dear Unsuspecting Mall Walkers

by Maggie on October 15, 2016

Dear Unsuspecting Mall Walkers,

I’m sure you enjoy your mall walks on Saturday mornings. You go early enough in the day that you can avoid the crowds of strollers, the throngs of people out to see the Craft Fair in the center of the mall or the raucous teenagers causing disturbances as they navigate their awkward relationships and newfound freedom to explore.

We headed to the mall early this morning, too. The early rain foiled our plans to head out to a local pumpkin farm but by 9:00, the children just needed to be out of the house. Hoping to avoid spending money to do anything, we made the decision to get Tessa some practice in her walker at the local mall.

Looking back, this was a terrible decision.

I should have known this when one of the following things happened before we left:

Ellie started complaining of a headache, which always means that she is about to get some sort of illness.

Tessa unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper and threw it into the (running) shower.

Normally, we keep a tall bar on the back of the walker that allows us to grab hold of our speed demon when she takes off. Today, we did not have it.

Today, we should have had it.

So to all of you unsuspecting mall walkers, who got to mix up your workout routine to dodge and weave while she careened around corners and at times, beelined right toward to you as fast as she could so that she wouldn’t miss a chance to say hello… well, I’m sorry.

And to you, shop owners, who were busy setting up for your day when a loud almost-three-year-old showed up in your store and shouted “HI!” to all your unsuspecting customers (actually, #sorrynotsorry for this one).

But especially to you, Man Who She Tried To Follow into the Bathroom.

Yes, that happened.

We stayed for precisely 22 minutes, 14 of which were spent trying to convince Tessa to walk out of the building, ultimately throwing her angry little body over my shoulder while John carried the giant walker and the wilting five-year-old back to the car. Once we had exited, we paused to reshuffle children and equipment and suddenly there was vomit on my shoes from the now completely wilted Ellie and John and I just laughed because what the hell were we thinking in the first place??

So, sorry. I can’t promise we won’t be back anytime soon because community integration and stuff, but hey, at least we’ll put the bar on the back of the walker and try to control the chaos just a little bit.

Most sincerely,

A Tired Mom of Two Wild Children.

This is part of the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge – blogging every day for the the 31 days of Down Syndrome Awareness month. To find out more about the challenge, and to see other blogs participating, click here.

This year’s theme has been inspired by the Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network’s #deardoctor campaign. To see more #deardoctor letters, visit their Facebook page here.